One of the claims sometimes made by defenders of imperial weights and measures is that they are “natural”. The metric system (they may say) is all very well for science and technical matters, but for everyday life imperial units like the foot conform to the human scale and are more “natural”, unlike the arbitrary metric unit, the metre. We examine this argument.
Continue reading “Are imperial units natural? (and some useful rules of thumb)”
UKMA discourages conversion between metric and imperial units. Much better to understand and use metric only – and forget about imperial. Occasionally, however, it is necessary – e.g. when trying to understand historical data or American stories. The following technical advice is offered by Martin Vlietstra.
Continue reading “How to convert fuel consumption figures (if you must)”
Defenders of imperial units sometimes claim that using units from different systems simply contributes to the richness of our language and culture. People use whichever units are appropriate to the context (they argue).
Continue reading “What’s wrong with two systems?”
Metric Views 